TJ and his friends are in class, and supposed to be learning about Black History Month, but they are goofing off instead. He learns an important Lesson in Listening when a pop quiz catches him by surprise, and learns that there is a time and place for everything.

Lorraine Rogers tells a simple story about the importance of listening, and teaches a little bit about Black History Month along the way. I would have liked to see a little more interaction between the characters, particularly TJs other friends, and his talk with his Dad. It was great to see a story where the father was in the picture though, and if your child is getting ready for school it creates a good opportunity to talk about the behavior that is expected in class.

Book for Children Ages: 5 years old and older

Reading Tips:

Expand on the book by talking about what TJ is feeling and thinking on each page, and whether he is making a good choice or a bad choice.

Related Discussion Questions:

See the discussion questions in the back of the book.

Activities for Kids:

Help your child write their own surprise test about the book, and then play the teacher and give you or another adult the test.

Go to your local library and see what else you can learn about Martin Luther King Jr.

Make a sign about listening. Title the top of the sign "It is important to listen when..." Then help your child make a list of times when it is important to listen. Have your child color illustrations, or look through magazines and cut out examples to glue to your paper. Hang it up where you can both see it as a reminder when needed.

Cultural Diversity: TJ is an African American child who has a wide diversity of friends in his classroom.

Children's Book Review Rating: 4 Stars*

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*A free copy of this book was given to Beautiful Books for Children for review purposes. Our commitment to our readers and authors is to always give an honest review, even when a review copy is provided. No other compensation was provided for this review.

What would happen if a spide decided to take up residence in your sink? That is the question in "There's A Spider In My Sink!" by Bill Kirk, which happily ends with the spider being given a new home out of doors so that everyone can still brush their teeth!

The layout and illustrations could have used some polish, but if your kid is crazy about spiders, this is the book for you. Each page has little factoids about spiders - even I learned a few things! And at the back of the book is a list of reference material, glossary of terms, and several activities. Most of these are suited for older children, such as a word search, making it a great cross-over book if you have both older and younger children. There is also a fun song you can sing with your younger child at the end of the book for extra fun.

Development Activities

Book for Children Ages: 1 - 4 years old

Family Reading Time: While the story is designed for the 1-4 age range, the factiods and activities at the end could really draw your grade-school age child in as well.

Reading Tips:

Guage your child's interest level and patience when reading this book. It is okay to just read the rhymes without reading the factoids for younger kids. See what level they are at and go with it!

This is a good book for kids who like spiders, but you may also try reading it with a child who is afraid of spiders. Perhaps seeing what important jobs spiders do (eating insects) and learning more about them will help them overcome their fear.

Related Discussion Questions:

What would it be like to have a spider in your sink?

What things do you use your sink for?

Do you like spiders?

Activities for Kids:

Sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" together and do the motions

Sing the song by the author in the back of the book.

Make your own spider. What you need: a small paper plate, marker or crayon, pipe cleaners. What you do: Poke eight pipe cleaners into the paper plate and bend into legs. Draw on a face. If you want to take your spider for a walk, tape a piece of string to the top and have fun!

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The rhymes didn't quite seem to flow as well as the water on the pages in a few places, and I am almost certain that the plural of octopus is octopi, not octopuses. But we enjoyed counting on each page, and I appreciated that it had the number rather than the word for the number on each page to help with number recognition.The whole story is set in the context of a dream, and at the end it hints at another dream all about counting birds.Want a sneak peek?video: peep in the deep - sea creature counting book

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"Six little rabbits down by the lake, munching on carrots and chocolate cake."

Sounds like a peaceful afternoon right? And it is - until the TERRIBLE PLOP. Now the reader knows right away that it was just an apple falling from a nearby apple tree into the pristine and calm lake. But the rabbits don't. As they run away they scare the rest of the animals too in a "the sky is falling"-esque moment.

That is until they reach the bear who is sure that HE will not be scared and brings (more like drags) the littlest rabbit along to show him just what is so scary.

Like all of my favorite books,"The Terrible Plop" by Ursula Dubosarsky is a simple story on the surface that opens up lots of room for teachable moments and conversation with your kids. In this case, fear, following the crowd, bullies, and learning that knowledge is power. Plus it will certainly make your kids laugh, and soon they will be "reading" right along with you not matter their age.

Development Activities

Book for Children Ages: 2 years old to 6 years old

Family Reading Time: This may also be a good one to read with your early grade school kids if they deal with fear, anxiety, or bullies.

Reading Tips:

This is a great question book to help your children identify feelings and emotions, as well as compare to things they are feeling in their lives.

Related Discussion Questions:

Why were the rabbits scared?

Why did all the other animals run away?

Should we do things just because someone else does them?

What did the bear learn about being a bully?

Activities for Kids:

Fill up your bathtub and get lots of different objects to let your kids drop into the water. What sound does it make when it falls? Does it float or sink?

Make your own snack of carrots and chocolate cake.

Have some running fun of your own by playing your favorite variety of tag.

Cultural Diversity: Though this book was written by an Australian author, I am pretty sure there is NO where in the world where a monkey, a fox, an elephant, rabbits, and kangaroos all live together in the wild - although it was funny to see. If you want you could talk about all the different parts of the world that they animals live.

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Some field mice are off to find some food. They keep finding it, but keep losing some too as they encounter crows, a fish, an owl, and other animals that make getting difficult home. In the end they are safe back in their home with enough dinner for everyone.

"How Many Mice?" by Michael Garland was a fun tale of counting, addition, and subtraction. The illustration technique (also by Michael Garland) was a unique 2-D cut-out looking style that was something different from the usual. My kids had fun counting the different foods.

Development Activities

Book for Children Ages: 2 years old to 5 years old

Reading Tips:

Each page has a question about how many pieces of food, etc. Add your own questions to build on this about how many pieces of corn, how many strawberries, etc.

Related Discussion Questions:

What is your favorite food that the mice found?

Activities for Kids:

Choose your favorite fruit of vegetable for snack. Count how many pieces you have. Practing adding and subtracting as you eat some and add more to the plate. Snack time and math time all in one.

Make your own matching game. Use 3x5 cards for the cards, then write a number on each one. Find pictures in magazines of different things (cats, apples, etc.) and cut them out. Glue the number of things on the cards that matches the numbers. Or draw your own pictures. To make this easier for smaller children just draw the number of dots to match the number. Make sure to make two of each number. Then turn them all over and play matching to find the numbers that are the same.

Visit a pet store or farm and see all the different animals. What do they eat? Where do they sleep? How many can you count?

Cultural Diversity: The animals and plants that this little family of grey mice encounter will be most familiar to those living in the northern hemisphere.

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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ― Dr. SeussWe believe that reading with your children, and then building on that reading by connecting with real world experiences, help children grow to their potential every day! It is a process we call "learning through integrative play." Learn more.